National Prisoner Health Information Committee (NPHIC)

Two committees oversee the Prisoner Health Data Collection held by the AIHW: the National Prisoner Health Information Committee (NPHIC) and the Technical Expert Group (TEG).

NPHIC was developed following discussions involving the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (SCATSIH), the Centre for Health Research in Criminal Justice, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) in late 2004. Since then, the committee has helped to establish the Prisoner Health Data Collection which has been conducted in 2009, 2010 and 2012; with the next data collection to be held in early 2015. NPHIC has a role to report on national indicators of the health of Australia's prisoners, as well as providing comments and advising on any associated developmental work and publications.

TEG-a subcommittee of NPHIC-provides technical advice and assistance for the Prisoner Health Data Collection and reports directly to NPHIC.

Membership on the committees includes representatives from the Departments responsible for prisoner health in each jurisdiction, a representative from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), two independent subject matter experts and representatives from the AIHW. TEG has a maximum of 3 jurisdictional representatives. The AIHW is the secretariat for both committees.